“Billings, research professor of reformed theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich., and an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in America, has made significant theological contributions over the years.

“Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (Baker Academic, 2011)—his study of the basic tenet of Christian faith and its effects on social justice, mission, and observant life—won a 2012 Christianity Today Award of Merit in the Theology/Ethics category.

“But when he received the news of his terminal illness at age 39, Billings’s world was shaken, and he faced the most personally difficult theological questions of his life.”

“What a good premise for a book: an eight-year-old precocious child carrying on a theological conversation with her 73-year-old grandfather–not just any grandfather but a noted ‘Reverend Canon Professor . . .’ who has edited a volume on Christian dogmatics. . . . There is something here for all Christians–or skeptics–from adolescents to grandparents, who read for insight as well as whimsy.”
—Evelyn Bence, FaithfulReader.com

Come and listen in as one of the world’s most respected theologians talks theology with his eight-year-old granddaughter. In Conversations with Poppi about God, Robert Jenson and Solveig Lucia Gold share with us their unscripted, spontaneous talks about everything from the meaning of the Trinity to what God looks like. The result is a charming and enlightening book that reminds us all we have a lot to learn from theologians and from children. Now available in paper, Conversations with Poppi will appeal to parents, grandparents, pastors, teachers, and Christians looking for a refreshing perspective on the mysteries of Christianity.

Robert W. Jenson (DrTheol, University of Heidelberg) is former senior scholar for research at the Center of Theological Inquiry. He is the author of On Thinking the Human: Resolutions of Difficult Notions and coeditor (with Carl Braaten) of Christian Dogmatics. Jenson lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Solveig Lucia Gold attends elementary school in New York and enjoys visits to Poppi’s home in Princeton, New Jersey.

“Over the past decade, McKnight (The Jesus Creed) has emerged as America’s theologian, a breezier, more down-home version of the British N.T. Wright. His works provide an extra layer of theological undergirding for pastors and lay people who wish to go deeper in Bible study and live more consciously under the rule of ‘King Jesus,’ as he refers to Jesus Christ.

“McKnight’s writing is vivid, occasionally a little quirky. His book is valuable because he begins with the present state of churches: divided between what he calls the ‘skinny jeans’ and ‘pleated pants’ approaches.

“The skinny-jeans types want to present everything in terms of social activism and justice—’kingdom work for the common good’—but they often miss the boat when calling people to do everything under King Jesus. The pleated-pants crowd wants to understand everything as related to personal salvation, but they too miss the larger picture of the implications for the saved life under King Jesus.

“What a good premise for a book: an eight-year-old precocious child carrying on a theological conversation with her 73-year-old grandfather–not just any grandfather but a noted ‘Reverend Canon Professor . . .’ who has edited a volume on Christian dogmatics. . . . There is something here for all Christians–or skeptics–from adolescents to grandparents, who read for insight as well as whimsy.”—Evelyn Bence, FaithfulReader.com

Come and listen in as one of the world’s most respected theologians talks theology with his eight-year-old granddaughter. In Conversations with Poppi about God, Robert Jenson and Solveig Lucia Gold share with us their unscripted, spontaneous talks about everything from the meaning of the Trinity to what God looks like. The result is a charming and enlightening book that reminds us all we have a lot to learn from theologians and from children. Now available in paper, Conversations with Poppi will appeal to parents, grandparents, pastors, teachers, and Christians looking for a refreshing perspective on the mysteries of Christianity.

Robert W. Jenson (DrTheol, University of Heidelberg) is former senior scholar for research at the Center of Theological Inquiry. He is the author of On Thinking the Human: Resolutions of Difficult Notions and coeditor (with Carl Braaten) of Christian Dogmatics. Jenson lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Solveig Lucia Gold attends elementary school in New York and enjoys visits to Poppi’s home in Princeton, New Jersey.